Computer Anxiety and Attitudes of Urban Teacher Education Students

This three-part study used quasi-experimental methodologies to: (a) determine how a computer literacy course affects the computer anxiety and computer attitudes of urban teacher education students over time, (b) explain and predict urban teacher education students who are resistant to reduction of computer anxiety, and (c) determine whether a humanistically-focused treatment is more effective than a traditional cognitively-focused treatment in reducing computer anxiety and improving computer attitudes. For the first part of this study 75 subjects were measured over three observations using a 13-week interval. The treatment, a mandatory computer literacy course for teacher education students, was conducted between the first two observations. A significant reduction in computer anxiety means and a significant increase in computer confidence means were found across all three observations. Differences in computer liking and computer usefulness means were not significant. Orthogonal polynomial contrasts revealed that the relationship between computer anxiety and the three observations was 94.75% linear and only 5.25% quadratic, and the relationship between computer confidence and the three observations was strongly linear with a nonsignificant quadratic trend. A multiple regression analysis was conducted for the second part of this study using 86 subjects. The results of this analysis revealed that 69% of the variance in posttest computer anxiety could be explained by the combined influence of computer confidence, computer knowledge, and trait anxiety. The addition of computer experience, computer liking, computer usefulness, and locus of control to explain the variance in posttest computer anxiety was nonsignificant. For the final part of this study, 29 subjects were exposed to a cognitively-focused computer literacy treatment and 28 subjects were exposed to a humanistically-focused treatment with each treatment consisting of two groups that were taught by different instructors. After statistically equating groups on the pretest measurement of the applicable dependent variable, a significant increase in computer usefulness means was found in the humanistically-focused treatment group. No significant differences between treatments were found for computer anxiety, computer confidence, and computer liking, and no differences were found between instructors

Building Sense of Community at a Distance

This article challenges the belief that strong sense of community is limited to the traditional classroom and proposes that the virtual classroom has the potential of building and sustaining sense of community at levels that are comparable to the traditional classroom. Drawing on research literature, the concept of learning community is applied to the virtual classroom by taking on the issue of how best to design and conduct an online course that fosters community among learners who are physically separated from each other. Course design principles are described that facilitate dialogue and decrease psychological distance, thereby increasing a sense of community among learners

Building Sense of Community at a Distance

This article challenges the belief that strong sense of community is limited to the traditional classroom and proposes that the virtual classroom has the potential of building and sustaining sense of community at levels that are comparable to the traditional classroom. Drawing on research literature, the concept of learning community is applied to the virtual classroom by taking on the issue of how best to design and conduct an online course that fosters community among learners who are physically separated from each other. Course design principles are described that facilitate dialogue and decrease psychological distance, thereby increasing a sense of community among learners. First publication : http://www.irrodl.org/content/v3.1/rovai.pd

Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning networks. The Internet and Higher

Abstract The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between sense of community and cognitive learning in an online educational environment. Study participants consisted of 314 students enrolled in 26 graduate education and leadership courses taught at a distance using the Blackboard.com SM e-learning system. Study results provided evidence that a significant relationship exists between classroom community and perceived cognitive learning. Online learners who have stronger sense of community and perceive greater cognitive learning should feel less isolated and have greater satisfaction with their academic programs, possibly resulting in fewer dropouts.

Building Sense of Community at a Distance

This article challenges the belief that strong sense of community is limited to the traditional classroom and proposes that the virtual classroom has the potential of building and sustaining sense of community at levels that are comparable to the traditional classroom. Drawing on research literature, the concept of learning community is applied to the virtual classroom by taking on the issue of how best to design and conduct an online course that fosters community among learners who are physically separated from each other. Course design principles are described that facilitate dialogue and decrease psychological distance, thereby increasing a sense of community among learners. First publication : http://www.irrodl.org/content/v3.1/rovai.pd

Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses

Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses